It all started back in 1982 when I was in 5th grade at Villa Maria Academy. The nuns called my Mom and told her I was always disheveled. They asked if she could do something about my frizzy hair and the pig poop on my shoes. This is not a joke. I was Skeeter from The Help.
At that time, there were limited hair products and if the pigs, horses and cows got out overnight, we had to get them back in the barn dressed in our uniforms. Give me a break, people! But maybe they weren’t so far off the mark. As I grew up, disheveled seemed to stick. I aways had a messy dorm room, apartment and now, at times (ok, more often than not), my family home. My car has always been a pigsty and it is obvious that I really don’t like to iron.
As one might expect though, being disheveled adds an interesting twist to every day experiences. One of my favorite stories took place in 1995 when a stink-bomb was mysteriously placed in my jean overalls during a pub crawl in Philadelphia. After a fun-filled Saturday, I arrived at work Monday morning to find a “bomb” in my back pocket. My friends laughed with me and we all rejoiced it didn’t break, but they quickly pointed out that it was really gross I hadn’t washed my pants.
Fast forward, September 2012. My kids receive an allowance of $2/week if they do their chores, behave and do well in school. Robbie, my oldest, asked if he could download an app for $1.99 in lieu of the cash. So on Sunday afternoon I put in my credit card security code, left Robbie in charge of the download and spastically tried to clean, do laundry, cook dinner and everything else that goes along with managing a household. I like to think part of my disheveled charm is my ability to multitask, foster independence in others and gullibly trust things will go as planned. My back up strategy is always to try and stay calm, laugh at myself and pick up the pieces if it all falls apart.
Monday morning it all fell apart. I am in my office and I start to receive email receipts from iTunes. As my face starts to burn with anger, the pit in my stomach grows as I am reading charges for apps ranging in price from $1.99, $9.99, $19.99 to three at $49.99. When the fifth receipt arrived and I calculated the total charges to be close to $400, I couldn’t hit “Report a Problem” fast enough. I called customer support and was directed to where I should send the email explaining the situation since billing does not have a telephone number. (Now you know.)
Nervous but hopeful they would have sympathy for this expensive mess; I am happy to report iTunes removed the charges within 72 hours. As always, being disheveled has a silver lining and now I can blog about this great customer experience! FYI – Here are a few other reasons Apple will reverse iTunes charges: http://www.labnol.org/software/itunes-app-store-refunds/13838/

My motto to live by: Life should NOT be a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in and attractive and well preserved body, but rather to skin in sideways, chocolate in hand, wine in the other, body thoroughly used up, totally worn out and screaming … Damn, what a ride!!

Share this:

Like this:

LikeLoading...

Related

About alisonguzzio

A marketing and public relations veteran, Alison Guzzio has directed projects for a range of high-tech, pharmaceutical, security, ecommerce, manufacturing, chemical, global trade and broadband companies.
Strengths include positioning companies to maximize visibility among key stakeholders such as media, investors, channel partners and customers. Alison has a strong understanding of business objectives and she effectively translates this into results for her clients.
In addition to her experience managing the demands on emerging companies, Alison is skilled in taking products from conception to roll-out, developing creative marketing plans, generating media coverage along the entire product lifecycle and leading brand awareness campaigns during critical growth stages.